Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
Parallel translations
- WEB Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.
- BSB Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars.
- NKJV Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars;
- NASB Wisdom has built her house, She has carved out her seven pillars;
- NLT Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wisdom has built her house and set up its seven pillars. Wisdom prepares a stable, gracious place and invites people in.
Overview
This opens a contrast between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly, both of whom issue invitations. Wisdom's well-built house with seven pillars suggests completeness, stability, and generous hospitality. Her gracious feast and call foreshadow the gospel invitation, where Christ, the wisdom of God, prepares a place and bids sinners come (John 14:2-3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Matt 16:18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
- Rev 3:12Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
- Eph 2:20–22And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
- Gal 2:9And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
- 1 Kgs 7:2–3He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
- 1 Cor 3:9–15For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
- 1 Pet 2:5–6Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
- 1 Kgs 7:21And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
- Heb 3:3–6For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
- 1 Kgs 7:6And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them.
- 1 Tim 3:15But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 9:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.